The Tactical Chest Rig: Is Higher Better?

We’re almost done with our series on tactical load carriage methods. With this post, we turn our attention to the chest rig. The main focus of my article is on the standalone versions of the chest rig, but the information applies just as readily to plate carriers and other ways of moving the load higher on the torso.

So far, we’ve focused on carrying the fighting load around the waist, where it distributes load to the hips. Historically, this is the load placement of choice for militaries around the world going all the way back to the Romans. But it wasn’t the only option.

The so-called chest rig really gained notoriety during Vietnam. Chinese-made Type 56 canvas rigs dominated the NVA inventory for carrying AK-47 magazines all during the war. Many US special operations forces stole or copied the design to better blend in or use enemy weapons.

But the truth is that carrying equipment on the chest has a long history.

A Brief History of the Chest Rig

Blackbeard, as pictured by Benjamin Cole in the second edition of Charles Johnson’s General Historie, 1724

I don’t have any solid evidence to show you, but there is a fairly long history of carrying ancillary equipment on the chest. While it might not have been fighting equipment the way we consider it today, things like bandoliers have always been around.

The famous pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, carried several pistols about his chest. Various depictions show them high, some show them lower, but the principle remains the same. Carrying them on the torso kept them accessible in an emergency.

During the World Wars, it was common to store extra ordnance like grenades or spare clips in bandoliers stretched across the chest. The American’s had a grenade vest that looks very similar to modern chest rigs during WWI. The Germans later did it as well with rifle clips.

The British and Canadians developed the so-called battle jerkin that looks awfully like an early version of the Israeli Ephod developed in the 1970s.

These items never rose to the prominence of the Chinese Type 56, though.

Partly through American adoption during Vietnam, but also because of the iconic status the style reached during the Rhodesian Bush War. Fighters used copies of the rig so much and so effectively that we colloquially dubbed it, “The Rhodesian Rig.”

Modern Variations

The chest rig had a lot of benefits to mobility, which I’ll get to. But for now, know that it had enough of an influence that the US military tried to incorporate it into the ALICE system. In we developed 1988, the Integrated Individual Fighting System (IIFS).

This system used the same ALICE gun belt threaded through the bottom loops, but moved the load higher up the torso. As far as I can tell, it was never as popular. The video above shows the experimental version developed in 1986.

The final version moved the magazine pouches further to the sides and angled them slightly. A lot of guys have logged a ton of time wearing this system, to varying amounts of happiness.

Common complaints were that it was too hot, the pouches were too awkward, and it was just a lot of nylon. This system is still around in some storerooms but was mostly replaced by MOLLE.

With MOLLE, we arrive at the Fighting Load Carrier (FLC) and Tactical Assault Panel (TAP). However, at this point, wearing fighting gear separately from armor was getting less and less common. As we got into the 2000s, it became standard practice to mount equipment pouches directly to the armor system.

Costs and Benefits of Chest Rigs and Plate Carriers

For practicality purposes, I’m staying entirely out of the pro-cons of wearing ballistic plates for protection. This discussion focuses solely on fighting load.

The primary benefits of chest rigs come from getting stuff off your hips and belt line. The hazards come from putting too much “stuff” in front of you and under your arms.

When using a chest rig, your gear is usually easier to access because it’s all right in front of you. There’s no need to reach around behind you to retrieve anything.

Since there’s nothing on your back or hips, sitting in chairs or vehicles is a lot more comfortable. I sincerely think this is one of the main reasons chest rigs grew in popularity during GWOT (Global War on Terrorism). Classic foot patrols gave way to vehicle patrols, and chest-mounted gear was just more convenien for hopping in and out of vehicles all day to clear houses.

Gear mounted high, even if it’s directly in front of you, doesn’t get in the way of crouching, kneeling, or walking uphill

Hazards

Chest rigs hinder heat management. Your torso, along with your head, is a high blood-flow region that your body uses to ventilate heat. By covering it with a chest rig, you limit the usable surface area for doing so.

Mounting gear higher on your chest puts more strain on your core strength. This isn’t all that different from rucking, really. Any tactical fitness program you pursue should include a healthy amount of core work. But from a load-carriage standpoint, chest rigs require more core strength than belt kits, and will eventually tire you quicker if the load is heavy enough. If the chest rig is heavy enough, you practically have to balance it with a ruck in your back to prevent too much strain.

Chest rigs increase your silhouette and make it harder to “get low.” With belts, we tend to move bulk out to the sides, which keeps our fronts flat and ready to press into the dirt for going prone. Putting all of your gear on your chest raises your profile off the ground and makes it much harder to fit behind low-lying cover.

With excessive bulk in front of you, manipulating your weapon grows more difficult. If you add too much bulk to the sides, under your armpits, then overall movement becomes awkward since it gets in the way of your arm’s natural swing.

British troops in GWOT enforced operating procedures to remove all extraneous hard objects in open pouches from their chest rigs. The hazards came from roadside explosives. If you were hit, objects sitting unsecured in your chest rig tended to blow upwards towards your face. That’s certainly an issue if you’ve stuffed multitools, knives, or other pointy objects in there. But that’s a rather unique circumstance to that conflict.

My Chest Rig Setup

Now we come to it, my personal chest rig. You’ve seen this one before in other photos. In this one, it’s more or less by itself, along with my CCW setup. This is what you might imagine for a situation where you were out and about concealed carrying, but happen to keep a chest rig and carbine in your vehicle. That’s probably a little “too much” for me, but this is something that law enforcement deals with regularly.

My chest rig, pictured along with my CCW belt to illustrate throwing on a chest rig in an emergency without access to my full battle belt to go with it.

When approaching a chest rig, you really need to account for the hazards more than anything else. Aside from the heat management part, our biggest gains come from minimizing bulk.

My chest rig is a Max Velocity Tactical Special Operations Rig. I’m a big fan of it, but he gets them made in small batches so availability is sometimes difficult. I’ll provide some alternatives in a minute, but I highly suggest this one if they’re in stock.

You’ll notice immediately that I only have a single layer of magazines across my front. This is for reducing bulk. With this configuration, I can still get low to the ground and easily manipulate my weapon through loading or malfunctions.

On each side of the center four magazines, I have a small enclosed utility pouch. I can stuff my Vortex Solo monocular in one of these, admin items, or similar. To be honest, I go back and forth on keeping them there because I seldom use them. In fact, the one on my left sometimes gets in the way during drills.

The rig has two flattened “pockets” on each end under the armpits. I can stick two magazines in each of these spaces or my PRC-152 radio clone. On the backside of the center section are two sewn in pouches for a map and orienteering compass like my Suunto MC-2.

That’s it. You should only carry the minimum equipment needed on your chest in as low profile a way as you can. Everything else should go into your backpack (a subject for another day), on your belt (if you have one), or in your pockets.

The Bottom Line

Chest rigs are a great option for carrying gear as long as you don’t try and load them down too much. I prefer to think of them as a “plus up” to other equipment like a battle belt. You probably wouldn’t see me mix it with one of the belt rigs I discussed in the load bearing equipment article, though, since that would be a lot of straps to deal with. That doesn’t include any backpacks, either.

Chest rig in addition to battle belt. All of the essentials with a few extras.

If you’re looking for some recommendations, these are my favorite chest rigs aside from the MVT model due to their lower profiles. Again, I look for a single row of magazines up front (or all MOLLE to attach my own pouches), and I prefer H-Harness style straps across my back to distribute the load.

Also, I tend to wear my chest rigs pretty darn high compared to most images you’ll see out there. For some of these options, you might have to trim the straps a bit to remove slack. I’ve also seen people wear these fairly low, more like belly rigs than chest rigs. It’s a little personal preference, but I find wearing high keeps it out of the way of any belt I might also be wearing.

I know that’s quite a few suggestions, and I might have caused you some more confusion over which one is “best.” Don’t do that to yourself. All of the chest rigs I’ve listed, starting with the MVT one, are high quality and will serve you well. Pick one that’s in stock in the color you want, and just do it.

Over to You

We’ve gone through each of the three major carrying techniques: battle belts, load bearing equipment, and chest rigs. Each of them have their own benefits and risks associated with them. Sometimes you can combine them, as with battle belts and chest rigs, to minimize the drawbacks with each component individually. Other times, you just need to commit because it’s the best answer for the situation you’re in.

Matt is the primary author and owner of The Everyday Marksman. He's former military officer turned professional tech sector trainer. He's a lifelong learner, passionate outdoorsman, and steadfast supporter of firearms culture.

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Commenting Rules: Be cool. This is a community about self-improvement and growth. We encourage respectful debate and criticism, but don't be mean or rude. If you're being mean or disrespectful, your comment will be deleted without warning. That said, have fun, and thanks for the conversation!

These articles concluded a realization I had made and the decision process was made infinitely easier by this series.

Urban needs differ from rural needs and I am urban/suburban but frequent a lot of rural areas…speaking of rural areas, nice to see brushbeaters resistor patch, but do you have a shirt?!….

Anyhoo, great stuff. It has put to bed some thoughts and issues I had and made the decision making process easier along the way by taking the legwork of finding the best practices and summarizing.

I think that’s why your blog is so great. You get to need out and be passionate about the stuff you love and you bring that history with you, for us to examine and cross reference. I must have recommended what you’re doing here to half a dozen folks by now.

Maybe one day I’ll actually upgrade from a **gasp!!!** Condor MCR4 (it just works and it was $25, cheaper than any of the pouches on it). Sometimes you don’t want to run an $800 plate carrier setup.

I can’t say I have Bushbeater’s shirt. Maybe someday after I do a class with him, though. I certainly appreciate the kind words and referrals!

I’m glad you found the series helpful. I’m planning two more entries. I’ve gotten a lot of messages that it’s challenged people to rethink some of what they are doing, which is nice to hear.

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Cutright

I’m going to share with you why I like the Condor MCR4, besides the price: It’s exceptionally well thought out even if the execution falls a bit short.

I’m eyeballin’, BECAUSE OF YOU, the Mayflower UW Chest Rig QD and I have no doubt the build quality is awesome. I like everything about it, including the H harness, but it lacks the two Velcro pockets (like the middle map pocket) that fit a radio on both sides (on the outsides, past the harness attachments).

Do you know of anything that is like this? It’s all essentially a ranger rack, with padded shoulder straps (either H or X harness) and also with the map AND Velcro pouches on the outside? Not trying to give you my homework, but I got to looking and can’t find anything like it.

I use the same MVT rig, good stuff. I like my chest rig “high and tight” as I can run and maneuver better vs the rig set lower, which ultimately means I look cooler whilst performing said activities. Plus it doesn’t interfere with my battle belt setup when wearing both.

Random internet guy tip: Before much field use, I shake down my gear by kitting up and running on a treadmill at home. One can figure out pretty quickly how it feels, how much noise it makes, etc. and make adjustments accordingly. The process also makes for interesting comments from your spouse. Or just kit up and take some cool Instagram pics, whatever floats your boat.

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who runs around in pieces of kit! Part of it is to shake out any issues and the second is to condition my body to being use to working in it! You realize pretty quick how much noise things may make (mags clinking together or water sloshing around) and where straps may create hotspots.

I get the odd look when out on ruck runs or running in my PC. But I think folks have gotten use to it by now.

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Kickstart

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I always love how you start the article with the history of the subject in this case, Blackbeard and his old school rig full of pistols. Top class information as always.

The is for reading and commenting! I can’t help that I’m a bit of a history nerd. I always feel like there was a reason that something came around, be it a piece of gear or a method of doing something. If we can get to that reason, we can make better determination of our needs against it.

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Brad

Any experience using a bandolier style carrier? It seems like it would give some of the advantages of a chest rig but since it’s lower profile, probably allows you to stay cooler.

To be up front, no. I don’t have any experience with bandoliers. That said, a lot of long-term infantry type guys I follow advocate for them in one form or another. The two most common I see are Blue Force Gear’s Ten-Speed 6 Pack and FirstSpear’s Fight Strap. What these guys usually talk about is keeping a bandolier like that handy in a vehicle or pack, and using it to quickly “plus up” their normal gear if they expect problems.

I can’t speak to how comfortable they are, though. It might make a pretty good low profile option along with a battle belt.

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Colorado Pete

It would seem to me that if you had to do much bending down/ducking and then back to upright, a high rig would be a lot harder on your lower back than a lower one. Anyone have any experience with that?

It does add some strain to the back, which is one of the hazards of a chest rig over a belt kit. There are really only two days to deal with it. First, keep the chest rig as light as possible so the strain isn’t much. Second, incorporate solid core and lower back training into a good fitness regime.

Together, those help avoid most issues with carrying weight higher in the torso.

You see a lot of guys wearing their chest rig around their belly which goes against some of the advantages of chest rigs. First and foremost sitting, bending over, and negotisteep/difficult terrain is made easier with a properly worn chest rig at mid to chest high (usually the bottom of the rig should be at about the bottom of your diaphragm). You don’t want that rig getting push up every time you take an uphill step or sit down (especially in a vehicle).

I have a Chicom type 56 rig and a Haley Mini rig and I like the tops of both to put my rifle mags right at the nipple level or a tad bit higher for unencumbered access regardless of the position I’m in.

You see the same issue with plate carriers, really. I think it’s one of those circumstances where you see people buy gear but never actually learn how to properly use it. Totally agree with you that wearing a chest rig as more of a belly rig gets rid of a lot of the benefits, and you’d be better off with a belt kit at that point.

Matt

Matt is the primary author and owner of The Everyday Marksman. He's former military officer turned professional tech sector trainer. He's a lifelong learner, passionate outdoorsman, and steadfast supporter of firearms culture.

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